About

Our tradition grows on trees.

With humble beginnings as a cider mill in 2006 with a 5,000-square-foot building, Vander Mill began distributing their cider products in 750 ml. glass bottles in 2008 and in draft kegs.

Vander Mill is now distributing their hard cider varieties in convenience and grocery stores, bars, and restaurants throughout Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

“We are going to continue our focus on innovation and creativity with our ciders,” Paul Vander Heide, Owner, said. “But we wanted to take a few of our core products and make them more accessible to customers.”

Vander Mill is proud to be a founding member of the Michigan Cider Association. Learn more >

GROWN LOCAL AND HARD PRESSED

We press only the best Michigan apples for our ciders. We work with the Dietrich family apple farm located right here in West Michigan. Our cider is never pasteurized and we do not add preservatives. Every 40-bushel bin is thoroughly culled (sorted) to eliminate the possibility of any bad apples entering the juice. We then wash the apples before grinding them into “pomace”. The pomace is transferred to our accordion-style press where we squeeze it dry. We use only fresh juice when bottling sweet cider and fermenting hard cider.

START SMALL, THINK BIG

Paul and Amanda Vander Heide started Vander Mill in 2006. The vision wasn’t elaborate: a small-town cider mill where people can feel at home. What started as a small and regionally distributed product, the Vander Mill hard cider brand quickly gained a strong customer base and the production facility needed to expand in 2012. Greater regional distribution demanded further growth, and a new production facility and tap room was opened in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2016. Today, Vander Mill distributes to Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

TAKING IT A STEP FURTHER

Every drop of cider that comes out of a bottle has been squeezed from an apple, but after you try one, you’ll see that not all cider is fruity and sweet. We combine flavors from other fruits and spices that straddle the line between traditional cider and pushing it a little bit. Our aim is to create a complex flavor which also carries across to the food we serve. Our food, just like our cider, is farm-to-table. From smoking and curing our own bacon to baking our own bread, everything we put in front of you is homemade. We want your taste of Vander Mill to be a unique experience.

"A group of friends and I stopped by here on our way from Saugatuck to Grand Rapids and loved it..."